“Another Earthquake”

Date

1-31-1812

Newspaper

Alexandria Herald

Page and Column

Page 2, Column 3 and 4

Newspaper Location

Alexandria, Virginia

Serial Number

1157

Abstract

Felt report for the January 23, 1812 earthquake from Richmond, Virginia. Time of the earthquake was “about 9 o’clock” am (local time) furniture was moved and ripples formed in coffee and tea cups. Earthquake was felt more on hills than in low places. Article concludes with a speculation on its origins. From the Richmond Enquirer.

Transcript

ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE.-Was most distinctly felt in this City on Thursday morning last, about 9 o'clock. Some persons were rocked in their chair. Some staggered as they stood. Hanging keys oscillated. Doors and windows flapped. Bedsteads and tall articles of furniture were moved to and fro. Those who were at breakfast, saw a violent ripple on the surface of tea & coffee. A few ran out of their houses in great alarm. The convulsion was more sensibly felt on the hill than below it; in high than in low houses.-We distinctly felt two of these convulsions, with the lapse of 15 to 20 minutes between them. These are indeed times of wonder. Comments-eclipses-tornadoes-earthquakes-in the age of superstition, these were held to be portentous signs. Powers of the physical world, are yet not satisfied? Are not your omens already out? Does not the conflagration of the theatre verify your superstitious auguries? Are not the ashes of our citizens enough?-But this is the language of superstition. To the eye of the bigot, there seems to be a mysterious sympathy between the revolutions of the moral and physical world. But truth abjures such absurdities. Was so large a mass as the Comet whirled from its immense circuit to speak to the inhabitants of this smaller globe? Was the moon quickened in her orbit? No; it was the regular course of her motion, for on these data the astronomers had predicted the eclipse of the sun; and what is history now, was once prophecy from their lips. The laws of earthquakes are just as regular, but more unknown to us; because these work out of sight, in the very bowels of the earth. Away then with these chimeras! They are only worthy of those ingenious days of witchcraft, when if an old woman sank in water, she was innocent; if she swam, she was guilty and was to be burnt for a witch. Away with all the dregs of those "degenerate days." Whether they are the tales of the nursery or of old women; whether we are told of the fate of nations in an eclipse or of a friend's death in the winding sheet of a candle; whether it be a dream, or the vision of a bigot, just let loose from prison, they are equally at war with the lessons of philosophy. Where is the connection between the sign and the event? What is it that links them together?-Where is the cause, or where the effect? [Enquirer.

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